Relate thee? Greater now in thy return
Than from the giant angels: thee that day 605
Thy thunders magnified; but to create

Is greater than created to destroy.

610

615

Who can impair thee, Mighty King, or bound
Thy empire? easily the proud attempt
Of spirits apostate, and their counsels vain,
Thou hast repell'd; while impiously they thought
Thee to diminish, and from thee withdraw
The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks
To lessen thee, against his purpose serves
To manifest the more thy might his evil
Thou usest, and from thence createst more good.
Witness this new-made world, another heaven
From heaven-gate not far, founded in view
On the clear hyaline, the glassy sea;
Of amplitude almost immense, with stars
Numerous, and every star perhaps a world
Of destined habitation; but thou know'st
Their seasons: among these the seat of men,
Earth with her nether ocean circumfused,
Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy

men,

620

625

And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanced!
Created in his image, there to dwell

And worship him; and in reward to rule
Over his works, on earth, in sea, or air,
And multiply a race of worshippers
Holy and just thrice happy, if they know
Their happiness, and persevere upright!

So sung they, and the empyrean rung
With halleluiahs: thus was sabbath kept.-

630

And thy request think now fulfill'd, that ask'd 635 How first this world and face of things began, And what before thy memory was done

From the beginning; that posterity,

Inform'd by thee, might know if else thou seek'st

Aught, not surpassing human measure, say. 640

NOTES ON BOOK VII.

I VERSE 1. Descend from Heaven. "Descende cœlo," Hor. Od. iii. 4. 1. He invokes the heavenly Muse as he had done before, b. i. 6: and as he had said in the beginning that he "intended to soar above the Aonian mount," so now he says very truly that he had effected what he intended, and "soars above the Olympian hill, above the flight of Pegasean wing;" that is, his subject was more sublime than the loftiest flight of the heathen poets.NEWTON.

2 Ibid. Urania. The word Urania, in Greek, signifies "heavenly."-NEWTON.

3 Ver. 8. Before the hills appear'd. From Prov. viii. 24, 25, and 30, where the phrase of Wisdom always "rejoicing" before God, is "playing," according to the Vulgate Latin; “ludens coram eo omni tempore.”—NEWTON.

4

* Ver. 21. Half yet remains unsung. Half of the episode, not of the whole work, is here meant. The episode has two

principal parts, the war in heaven, and the new creation.— NEWTON.

5 Ver. 25. Though fallen on evil days. The repetition and turn of the words is very beautiful: a lively picture this, in a few lines, of the poet's wretched condition. Though he was blind, "in darkness; and with dangers compass'd round, and solitude,” obnoxious to the government, and having a world of enemies among the royal party, and therefore obliged to live very much in privacy and alone, he was not become hoarse or mute. And what strength of mind was it, that could not only support him under the weight of these misfortunes; but enable him to soar to such heights, as no human genius ever reached before!-NEWTON.

6 Ver. 33. Of Bacchus and his revellers. It is not improbable that the poet intended this as an oblique satire upon the dissoluteness of Charles the Second and his court; from whom he seems to apprehend the fate of Orpheus, who, though he is said to have charmed woods and rocks with his divine songs, was torn to pieces by the Bacchanalian women of Rhodope, a mountain of Thrace; nor could the Muse Calliope, his mother, defend him: “so fail not thou, who thee implores." Nor was his wish ineffectual; for the government suffered him to live and die unmolested.— NEWTON.

7 Ver. 98. And the great light of day. Mr. Thyer is of opinion that there is not a greater instance of our author's exquisite skill in the art of poetry than this and the following lines. There is nothing more really to be expressed than Adam's telling Raphael his desire to hear the continuance of his relation: and yet the poet, by a series of strong and noble figures, has worked it up into half a score of as fine lines as any in the poem. Lord Shaftesbury has